Best Friends
by AnimeWolfGirl9
Summary: (minor Left Behind spoilers) One small gift always meant something special; this was no exception. While exploring the mall with Riley, Ellie finds something that will always remind her of her friend.


Just a simple one-shot I thought up; not much else to say besides that. Hope you enjoy!

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters/places/anything mentioned from the Last of Us or anything else and everything belongs to its respective owners.**

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Best / Friends

Ellie had decided that no matter how many times Riley and her snuck out to the abandoned mall, she would never get tired of seeing it. Something about the old movie posters and advertisements, the empty food stalls, the broken-down arcade… everything about it just enchanted her.

This time felt different thought; she saw the mall in a new light (not to make a pun; Riley had turned on the electricity to the inside of the mall, and it was now brighter). She gave a soft laugh at her own joke, wondering if she should tell it to her friend.

Ever since Riley had run off, Ellie had felt like something was missing. She had no one else; no family and no other friends, aside from Riley, so with her best friend missing, life hadn't been so great.

_But now Riley's back…_ she thought as she stared at where her said friend was walking ahead of her. A smile was on both of their faces, although Riley's seemed more noticeable; Ellie's was only a small one.

Things seemed like they were finally starting to get back to normal again. Riley was back and it felt like old times, sort of like the picture she had kept on the wall.

Another memory tugged at the back of Ellie's mind, one that was from the last hour. It brought another smile to her face as she continued walking.

_"Aw, man!" Ellie shouted as she saw Riley's brick break the last window. She had just been getting ready to break the last one on her car…_

_ "I win," Riley bragged as she came over towards her, but then started laughing when she realized by how much Ellie had lost._

_ "I was close!" Ellie argued, throwing the brick that was meant for the last car window onto the ground. It chipped a bit on one edge, but remained intact. She wished she had a bomb, that way she could blow the stupid thing up and never see it again. It was a reminder of her failure._

_ Riley noticed her action and laughed again, "I'm the brick master!"_

_ "Says who?" she asked, knowing that becoming 'brick master' had not been part of the deal. It was a pretty awesome title though…_

_ "Says that last unbroken window on your car," Riley taunted, motioning towards the said window._

_Ellie glanced at the window and picked up the brick she had tossed onto the ground earlier. She knew she only had one shot, which would either humiliate her further or prove a point. She threw the brick, and the sound of it crashing through the last window made her do a victory dance in her mind._

"_What window?" she asked, feigning innocence, and the both of them laughed this time. It felt nice to be able to laugh, to pretend like nothing had changed between them…_

"_I won, so you need to hold up your end of the bargain," Riley's words made her mood turn slightly sour, and she turned around, her back to her friend._

"_Just ask your stupid question already," she retorted, really wishing now that she would have won. Riley would probably ask her something embarrassing, and she would have no choice but to answer it._

_Her friend was silent for a while, giving Ellie nothing to do except examine the movie posters on the walls. She didn't want to turn around, that would mean that Riley had won (won what, she had no clue), but reluctantly did so after a while._

_Slowly turning around and giving her friend a sideways glance, she almost felt shy; almost as if things had changed too much… that they were no longer friends…_

"_What's it going to take for us to be where we were before?" Riley's question made her surprised inwardly. She wouldn't dare show that the question had shocked her, but it did make her think. How could they go back to before Riley had left, before they had fought?_

"_Just… keep doing what you're doing. It's working," she answered, her gaze breaking away from her friend's as they continued deeper into the mall._

"Hey Ellie," Riley's voice broke her out of the memory, "want to check this one out?"

Ellie looked at the store her friend was motioning to. There had once been a neon sign similar to the arcade's above the door, but it had fallen off the hinges and was now lying in a heap off to one side. She couldn't read the wording on the sign, but that didn't matter.

What did matter was that the store was familiar. Ellie recognized it easy enough; it was the store they had passed the first time that Riley had taken her to the mall, and the manikin with the funny pose was still in the window.

She had never been inside the store before; they had passed it numerous times, but had never gone in. It seemed interesting enough…

"Sure, why not?" she answered, giving a small shrug before following her friend through the doors.

The overwhelming smell of dust invaded her senses, making her cough as she waved her hand around, trying to clear some way for clean air. Riley mimicked the action.

"It's not too bad," her friend commented before turning on her flashlight. The rest of the mall was lit, but for some reason this store wasn't. The only light they had was from their flashlights and the light filtering through the open doorway.

She and Riley went their separate ways to search through the store. Ellie skimmed through the shelves, humming softly as she looked over its contents. Her fingers ran lightly over the items, flipping objects and containers over with some sense of awe and boredom.

Her fingers hit something cool and light, making her stop her search. She picked the item up by the light, cardboard sheet that held the object together and stared at it.

"Hey Riley, come look at this!" she shouted, hearing her friends footsteps echo until she was next to her.

"What is it?" Riley asked, but then stared at the object that was illuminated by their flashlights, "Oh, I've heard about these before."

"You have?" Ellie asked, staring down at the object as it separated in the middle.

"Yeah, it's a friendship necklace. Back before the outbreak, people would buy these. One person would wear one half, while the other got the second."

As Riley explained the importance of the object, Ellie felt numb. Nothing came to her at the moment, almost startling her. The object in her hands was made of a silver metal in the shape of a heart and had two words on it: best friends, with a break in the heart separating the two necklaces.

"Here, it goes like this," Riley commented as her friend took the necklaces off of the cardboard backing and placed the one with 'best' around her neck. She then turned to Ellie, putting the one with 'friend' on her.

Ellie felt speechless, and all her emotions started to return at one time, fighting for dominance. They stared at each other for a few moments before Riley broke away from her gaze.

"Want to keep going?" her friend asked, and Ellie nodded, following her friend towards the store entrance. When Riley wasn't looking, her hand wandered up to hold the cold metal in the shape of a heart, slowly tracing the outline.

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I've only got one other comment: Ellie doesn't get to be the brick master in this fanfiction. Unlike most of you who probably got the trophy 'brick master' (all you awesome brick throwers out there), I stink at throwing bricks, so I'm still trying (to be fair, I was on the last window). Either than that, I hope everyone enjoyed it!

-AnimeWolfGirl9


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